Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Why adults shouldn't text. XP

i wz gonna do this n txt tlk but i wnt bc i dnt wnt 2 get all the non-txt ppl 2 cnfuzd. lol.

I’ll stick to plain English for now.

Please don’t take this the wrong way, adults. After all, I guess I’m not a teenager anymore so technically, I’m in your camp now! But I kinda feel like adults can take everything way too seriously. That makes texting dangerous. One little slip of the thumb and you’re in the doghouse with someone forever!

Now, I know there are lots of adults I know who text more than teens do. The problem comes when you get the “less texty” adults trying to text the “text literate” adults. Then it gets messy.

Texter:can u send me that pic of our kids’ sleepovr?

Non-texter:Certainly. Do you want me to mail it to you?

Texter: lol nw! txt it 2 me! U took it on ur phone. :P

Non-texter:*Thinks—did she just stick her tongue out at me?*Okay, I will try.*runs to find a teenager to help her*

Texter:Thx.

Non-texter:I’m going to have my son help me send it. I don't know how.

Texter:Rofl srsly? vn! Kid pwr ftw!!

Non-texter:Did you just swear at me?

Texter:W@? *sarcastically* yeah i swear at evry1 when i txt, don’t u? its so fun! lol jk :P

Texter:*Three weeks later wonders why non-texter never talks to her anymore*

…Okay, so maybe this is an extreme example, but you get the idea. Misunderstandings. I mean, teenagers have them too, but with adults, they can get out of hand pretty quickly!

Here’s what I thought about adults as I was growing up:

Age 5-10: Ignorant bliss. Under the assumption that all adults are perfect

Age 11-15: Confused—I hear adults talking bad about other adults, and I see some adults acting like kids. Something’s wrong here. I thought adults were supposed to be perfect!

Age 16-18: Adults are way better at conflict resolution than I am. I seem to get into fights and disagreements with my friends a lot, and I can’t wait to be an adult so we can deal with things rationally and in a mature fashion. I mean, sure, adults have their differences, but they work them out like sensible people, right?

Current, Age 19-20: Adult drama is way worse than kid drama. In fact, they even make TV shows about it. They’re called soap operas. (Only difference is, in soap operas, everyone is rich and has nice hair.) I totally liked being a kid better. It was easier to kiss and make up, and when you’re mad at someone, you can just say it to their face, or else whisper it behind their back, have them hear you, and you fight about it for a while, and then you make up and you’re friends again!

I thought the whole teenage mood-swing thing went away when we hit adulthood. The gossip, the lies, the hurt feelings and paybacks and silent treatments? But the more I look around at young adults and “older” adults, I am pretty sure that it never goes away. At least, not unless we make it. As we get to be adults, we find more “adult-like” ways of doing it. Or sometimes, we just keep acting like kids (like the ladies who were cussing each other out in the grocery store because my brother and I were accidentally in their way . . . ) Anyway, I’m figuring out that the same “drama” that happened with kids happens with adults. No one magically grows out of it.

DUDE! If you’re still a kid or a teen, start now on eradicating those behaviors. You know, like a video game? If you don’t kill off all the bad guys now, they will turn up as even harder bad guys on the next level! Like, totally wicked, right? (And DON’T tell me cool people don’t say that anymore!) Learn how to deal with people you don’t like and how to diffuse arguments (Proverbs 15:1) now, so that when you’re older, you can actually BE as chill as you THOUGHT adults were supposed to be. Kapish?

Pardon me, but if you’re an adult, please know that cell phones may be hazardous to your relationships. JK! Seriously though, I’m encouraging you adults to join me in taking a good, hard, look at yourself and seeing which of those behaviors we attribute to “childishness” or “teen moodiness” actually got swept under the rug instead of dealt with in your life. They may be causing your problems with your coworkers, your tiffs with your friends, and even some of the issues in your marriage or miscommunications with your children. I know, I know, I'm just a college student, what do I know of the "real world"? But honestly, I see the same type of drama that goes on with the kids at college happening with adults in the workplace. It doesn't go away unless we make it!

Oh, and this is for kids AND adults: Texting was just an illustration, but seriously, don’t take it so seriously. What you interpreted as a sour mood could have just been a hasty message with no time for proper emoticons. With the zip-zap communication we have through instant messaging, email, and texts, it’s easier than ever to end up with a big electronic foot in our mouths. Take extra time to make sure your texts won’t leave people ticked off and try not to get upset by someone else’s message that could simply be a mistype or a text-o.

“May the words of my blog and the emoticons of my texts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord.”